The invention relates to bridge rectifiers, and in particular to a micro semiconductor bridge rectifier and the method of making the same.
Bridge rectifier is an electronic component well known in the art, which converts an input AC current into a DC current as an output. The structure of a known bridge rectifier is shown in FIG. 1, in which four rectifying diodes are connected in a specific arrangement to provide full-wave rectification.
ROC Patent Application No. 77212275, entitled "Improved Bridge Rectifier", discloses a bridge rectifier manufactured by semiconductor techniques. This prior art is incorporated herein by reference. In the prior art, four silicon diode chips connected with four electrodes are packaged to form a semiconductor bridge rectifier. FIGS. 2A and 2B respectively show the structure and schematic circuit arrangement of the prior art rectifier. The P-N junctions in the silicon diode chips limit the current to flow in one direction so as to provide the function of rectification.
In view of the fact that electronic products become more and more compact and surface mount technology has been employed during package process, it is a natural trend to downsize components. The method of manufacturing the known semiconductor bridge rectifier, however, requires connecting the four silicon diodes to electrodes and then packaging the diodes. Therefore, the size of the rectifier is not reduced and thus the requirement of downsizing cannot be met. Besides, the method is complicated and results in a poor yield rate.